Pension planning

[jon1959]

You cant claim State Pension until your qualifying age. To get a full pension at that age you need to have paid 30 years NI.

That is for a full basic state pension. If you go onto gov.uk to check your own future state pension entitlement (can't do this if you are already getting state pension or deferred) it shows in very big numbers the state pension you should get if you have paid enhanced NI for additional state pension (S2P or SERPS). For most people paying NI as employees with an occupational pension scheme their full entitlement will be the lower basic pension figure (shown in much smaller numbers on the gov.uk page). If that is the case you haven't missed out as the difference in NI payments from employer and employee will have gone into the occupational pension pot.

The information on making additional NI payments to reach the higher forecast is confused. It doesn't distinguish between topping up the contracted out level of NI with 'missing years' - which in my case were after I retired. I have already got 36 NI qualifying years so shouldn't need to fill in any gaps but it may make sense to top up if that is possible! It will have to be a phone call.

It was all clear as day 6 years ago - but now not.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

That is for a full basic state pension. If you go onto gov.uk to check your own future state pension entitlement (can't do this if you are already getting state pension or deferred) it shows in very big numbers the state pension you should get if you have paid enhanced NI for additional state pension (S2P or SERPS). For most people paying NI as employees with an occupational pension scheme their full entitlement will be the lower basic pension figure (shown in much smaller numbers on the gov.uk page). If that is the case you haven't missed out as the difference in NI payments from employer and employee will have gone into the occupational pension pot.

The information on making additional NI payments to reach the higher forecast is confused. It doesn't distinguish between topping up the contracted out level of NI with 'missing years' - which in my case were after I retired. I have already got 36 NI qualifying years so shouldn't need to fill in any gaps but it may make sense to top up if that is possible! It will have to be a phone call.

It was all clear as day 6 years ago - but now not.

I contributed to a German State Pension for about 15 months in the late 70's - and three of those months I was on 'Schlechtwettergeld' (i.e. paid only a proportion of my wages when the weather wouldn't permit me to work as a labourer on a building site) and for three weeks between jobs I was on the German dole. For that 15 months my German pension will be around 5% of the value of my UK State Pension!

The moral of the story is: build up a State Pension elsewhere once you have contributed for the required period in the UK.